EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.—The strange part wasn’t so much that the most surprising turnaround regular season in Minnesota Vikings history ended with second-year quarterback Christian Ponder comparing his clutch play to that of Michael Jordan.

No, the strange part came when no one busted out laughing.

In the biggest game of his two-year, 26-start career, Ponder continued a strong month by playing his best game since the Vikings put their future in his hands with the 12th overall pick of the 2011 draft. Playing turnover-free and filling his complementary role behind Adrian Peterson to perfection, Ponder helped the Vikings reach the playoffs in a most unusual way: Outscoring the Packers in a 37-34 shootout with reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers at his best.

“What a great experience and a great game,” said Ponder, who had a career-high 120.2 passer rating while matching a career high with three touchdown passes. “It’s something this whole organization should be proud of, especially me.”

Now, Ponder and the sixth-seeded Vikings travel to Green Bay, the site of their last loss back on Dec. 2, for a wild-card matchup with the Packers on Saturday night. Ponder has been struggling with elbow bursitis, however, and there were reports on Saturday that he may be replaced in the lineup by Joe Webb.

It will be Ponder’s first trip to Wisconsin since Dec. 17, when he added yet another strange twist to his season when used the team’s “Victory Monday” to sneak across the border into Hudson—about 30 minutes East of Minneapolis—to marry his fiancee, ESPN reporter Samantha Steele, in a ceremony that Vikings players, coaches and the bride and groom’s family knew nothing about.

“Coach (Leslie Frazier) says I should get married every other day,” Ponder said six days later when the Vikings dominated a 12-2 Texans team 23-6 in Houston. “I don’t know if my wife would like that, but we’ll see.”

Ponder’s enigmatic season marches on, with no one exactly sure where the next turn will take him, the Vikings or the long-term status of their marriage. Through the ebbs and flows, Frazier hasn't wavered for one second in his belief that Ponder is the team's long-term answer at quarterback.

Meanwhile, General Manager Rick Spielman is committed to giving high-profile draft picks three seasons to prove themselves, so Ponder will be the starter next season as well. Although it certainly helps that the Vikings made the playoffs, Ponder will need to improve on his consistency—he has 31 touchdowns and 25 interceptions in two seasons—for him to keep the job beyond 2013.

Ponder is well-liked by teammates. A laid-back guy with a self-deprecating sense of humor, Ponder gets more room for error from his teammates because he presents himself as just another player, which, strange to say in today's NFL, might be an accurate posture on a team built around a running back.

Coming off a shaky rookie season, Ponder began this season by throwing 143 straight passes without an interception. He was decisive, accurate, played with a better rhythm and made plays outside the pocket as the Vikings started 4-1, giving themselves one more win than they had during last year’s 3-13 debacle.

But Ponder started to slide in Week 6. The decisiveness he had early in the season turned to his old familiar skittishness. He looked hesitant in the pocket and slow while moving outside of the pocket.

Ponder also hates to disappoint teammates and coaches, so he gets dejected more easily than most franchise-type quarterbacks. That leads to a quick evaporation of confidence, which compounds the problem in a fast-paced game like the NFL. From Weeks 6-9, a slump-shouldered Ponder turned the ball over eight times in four games as the Vikings slumped to 5-4.

Absolute rock bottom arrived for Ponder at Green Bay on Dec. 2. His hesitancy, decision-making and flat-our fear of making a mistake have never been worse. So, naturally, he struggled, literally throwing away a winnable game that the Vikings lost 23-14.

He threw two interceptions, didn’t complete a pass to a wide receiver until the closing seconds, posted a 41.9 passer rating and retreated to his locker to sit in his uniform long after many of his teammates had showered and dressed.

Two people—very important people—made a point to stop by Ponder’s locker to offer their unwavering support. In hindsight, the visits from Frazier and Peterson must have meant a lot considering how Ponder has played since that moment.

“After that game, he just looked … he looked defeated,” Peterson said. “You know, it was … we’ll just be real, it was pretty obvious that the two interceptions cost us the game. It definitely showed on his face. So I just did what I felt I needed to do to help him get over that.

“Because this is the guy that we’re rolling with and we need him to continue to improve each week. … I told him the passion that you played with, that I’ve seen you play with, I loved that. You can win with that.”

Frazier’s message meant even more because Ponder’s performance was so awful, it cast doubt on his future with the team. The Vikings were 6-6 after their 2-5 stretch, and even some of Ponder’s supporters were suggesting Frazier erred by not turning the Green Bay game over to backup Joe Webb after Ponder’s second interception.

“I talked to him in the locker room after the game because I anticipated there would be a lot of criticism and a lot of second-guessing from a lot of different places,” Frazier said. “I wanted him to know that before he went to that press conference, I don’t want you to walk in there with any doubt about your future here as our starting quarterback. Next ballgame, you’re going to be our starter.”

With offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s play-calling help, Ponder’s next three games saw him get off to confidence-building quick starts. On the first drives in wins over the Bears, Rams and Texans, Ponder went 7 for 7 for 111 yards while leading the team to three touchdowns. He threw for one of them and ran for another.

That was huge for Ponder's sometimes shaky pysche. With the better starts, Ponder became more decisive, moving with a purpose and making better decisions. He still threw some balls that he shouldn't have, but he also threw only one pick in the final four weeks as the Vikings went 4-0 in four games they needed to win to make the playoffs. In the eight games that Ponder didn't throw an interception this season, the Vikings went 7-1.

The regular-season finale against a Packers team that had won 12 consecutive NFC North games was Ponder's finest moment as a pro. Ponder wasn’t the focal point. That would belong to Peterson, who ran for 199 yards on a career-high 34 carries to fall eight yards short of Eric Dickerson’s single season record of 2,105 yards.

But Ponder did his part, which is all the run-oriented Vikings ask him to do. When his confidence is high and his fear of making mistakes is low, Ponder's strength is making plays on the move, using play-action to Peterson to get outside the pocket and either deliver an accurate pass or use his underrated speed to pick up extra first downs.

Against the Packers, he didn’t turn the ball over while completing 8 of 11 third-down passes, six of them for first downs. The biggest completion was a 25-yarder to Michael Jenkins on third-and-11 from the Vikings’ 27-yard line with two minutes left in a tie game.

Misfire there and Rodgers has plenty of time to drive the Packers to a field goal that would have eliminated the Vikings and cast much more doubt on Ponder’s future.

“For me, one thing that has stuck in my mind throughout this whole season was something that Michael Jordan always said,” Ponder said. “When it came down to the last minutes of the game, when the pressure was on, someone asked him what he did differently. He said `I stay the same. It’s everyone else that changed.’

“When there’s those high pressure situations, I try to stay calm and treat it like any other down. When I was a younger player, I let all that pressure get to me. I’m out there having fun.”

Ponder was asked what the odds would have been a month ago that he’d be quoting Michael Jordan after the Vikings had clinched a playoff spot.

“No idea,” he said. “After that game in Lambeau, it was definitely a tough loss. Tough on me. I think it was a wakeup call that I need to play better. I used it as motivation and now here we are.”